


Mistaken Identity

by Pixel_Runner, Pixie Unger (Pixel_Runner)



Category: Original Work, Science Fiction - Fandom, exophilia - Fandom, space orcs, teratophilia - Fandom
Genre: Angst, F/M, I Don't Even Know, Kid Fic, Medical Trauma, POV First Person, Past Rape/Non-con, Refugee Camps, War, forced breeding - the aftermath, please suggest tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 04:22:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 19,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17093966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pixel_Runner/pseuds/Pixel_Runner, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pixel_Runner/pseuds/Pixie%20Unger
Summary: Orcs invade Earth and put the humans in refugee camps.  Eventually half orcs are born.  This is the story of one woman who is trying to raise a half orc and what happens when the orcs notice.





	1. Chapter 1

When they came, it was an invasion.  They don’t like to hear that. They like to say they saved us from climate change or the 0.1% or whatever bullshit lets them sleep at night.  It’s all lies. It was a fucking invasion. They killed thousands, millions. The rest they raped, tortured and locked us away in refugee camps.  We were fed and watered like cattle. And, in the fullness of time, some of us gave birth to little grey babies. 

 

But, they weren’t little grey men.  They looked like the hordes of orcs from some fucked up video game. We ended up calling them just that, Orcs. All hypermasculinity, toxic bullshit.

 

The baby was born in the mud, his mother screaming and cursing. Once the afterbirth was delivered, she shakily got to her feet and left him there.  Screaming to himself, alone to freeze or starve. Unwanted.

 

And, god damn it, I was a hormonal mess at the wrong part of my cycle and I couldn’t let that go.  Diapers were impossible, but we had rags. If you turned up in a food line asking for baby formula, it was provided.  The little guy ended up wrapped to my body under my clothes to keep him warm and to hide that I was harboring one of their babies.  His naked skin against mine. His little mouth looking for somewhere to suck. After a couple of days, my body got the hint and I didn’t have to ask for formula any more.

 

He wasn’t the only grey child in the place.

 

Max started walking early.  It was summer and too hot to carry him all the time.   I asked for baby clothes in the food line and was given something that said 2T to fit him.  He was six months old, his tusks already coming in. By a year, he could have passed for a five year old in height.  He was able to toddle around on his own now, which was good, I couldn’t really lift him any more.

 

He called me momma, like the human children called their parents.  I couldn’t let him play with them, he was too big and too uncoordinated.  He didn’t understand that he could hurt them. I would lead him away from the camp and play with him near the fence.  There were a few other grey boys who joined us. All boys, no little grey daughters.

 

That should have been a clue why they were really here.

 

Someone had made a rag ball for them to toss around, those little babies who played like a herd of charging rhinoceros. Us “mothers” would sit by and watch. 

 

That was a joke.  Some were too old to have birthed the child in their care.  There was a gay couple with a collection of three. There were others who just looked haunted.  Who flinched when their children roared. Those ones I could believe had birthed their sons. One or two who refused to blame the children they had birthed for the things the fathers had done.

 

We got by, eventually moving closer together to support each other.

 

That was what got us noticed.

 

The old ones came to see us and our little grey sons.  They were old, scarred, huge and vicious looking. Generals or warlords or something.  They were terrifying and the children could sense our fear.

 

One of the old ones bent and pulled Max away from me and laughed when my son bit him hard enough to draw blood.

 

He nodded to the others and they started to pull the children away from us.  Max was my son. He had known no other family. I had no other family left. I fought.  They took him anyway.

 

Two days later, I was pulled out of the food line and brought into the school where our camp was set up in the surrounding field.  There was a crowd of battle orcs, one elder and Max.

 

“Momma!’ he shrieked and tried to run to me.  The elder caught him easily. 

 

“It’s going to be ok, Max,” I lied. “It’s going to be ok.”

 

With a huge accent that was barely understandable around the tusks, the elder said, “He doesn’t speak our language.”

 

I gritted my teeth, “Babies aren’t born knowing how to speak.  They learn from listening to others. Max learned to speak by listening to me.”

 

“He doesn’t know how to eat our food.”

 

I didn’t bother to repeat myself.

 

“He is your son?” it was said with contempt.

 

I closed my eyes, “If you want him to see his mother dead, then I am the one you will need to kill.”

 

There was a ripple of anger at that. “Why would we want that?”

 

“It pairs well with what I know of you people.  You kill me. You absorb him into your army. He grows up and forgets I ever existed.”

 

“It is your race that uses child soldiers not ours.  The boy needs a father. You can barely care for him now.  He is not going to get any smaller.”

 

I swallowed.  He was right, but that didn’t mean I wanted to give up my son.  There were tears in my eyes as I nodded.

 

“Then it’s settled.”  He gestured to the group of orcs in the room, “pick one.”

 

I blinked.  “What?”

 

“Pick one to be the boy’s father,”  the elder said as though that were an explanation.

 

“How am I supposed to judge who will be a good father just by looking at them?”

 

He just kept watching me.  I shook my head and sat on the floor.  Max climbed into my lap. “Have they been taking care of you, sweetie?”

 

He nodded and hugged me tight enough to choke me a little while pressing his body tight enough to mine that I had to struggle to not tip over.  “One of them is going to … keep taking care of you. Can you tell me who the nice one is?”

 

The orcs in the room snorted with disbelief and laughter.

 

Max pointed to one with a shaved head and extensive tattoos.  One done in their style in red on his shoulder, but a bunch more that had clearly been added since he got to earth.

 

“That one?” I asked.  “Are you sure?”

 

He nodded before hiding his face into my neck.

 

“OK.”  I looked up in the vague direction of the elder.  “That one, I guess.”

 

The elder said something.  They looked surprised, but the one Max had indicated came over and scooped him up easily.

 

“MOMMA!” he screamed and tried to reach for me.  

 

I hung my head and wept.  It was the second time in three days that my son was being taken from me.

 

Then the warrior bent down and grabbed my arm in his other hand.  He pulled me upright and led me away.

 

“What?  What are you doing?”

 

“The boy is going to need a family,” the elder said like it was obvious.  “It is an odd move letting your child choose your mate, but you are an odd people.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have PMS and a cold and low self worth just now. Shameless posting to try to get good comments.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kari gets a medical. Whether she wants one or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This work in in progress on Patreon, but will turn up here eventually.

I was being dragged down the hallway.  The orc in question was holding my upper arm in one hand and a screaming, fighting Max in the other.  He walked briskly down the hall as I struggled to keep up. “Please slow down,” I begged.

 

I was ignored.

 

“You can let go of my arm.  You have my son, I’m not going to leave without him.”

 

Nothing.

 

“Can you even understand what I’m saying?”

 

He stopped outside one of the shower room attached to the gym.  He let go of my arm and opened the door. He walked in, Max still in his arms.  I hesitated, but only for an instant. I could hear my son calling for me.

 

The shower room was deserted.  The orc set down Max and turned on a shower.  After checking the temperature, he caught Max, pushed the boy into my arms and both of us into the shower.  Then he left. We were fully dressed and our clothes were rapidly soaking through. I scrambled out of the shower and stripped us both.  

 

It had been a very long time since I had access to hot water and soap.  So long that Max had never seen it. I was delighted. He was terrified.  I scrubbed myself first, telling him it how nice it was. Eventually, I was able to lure the little guy in with me with the promise of milk.  He liked the bubbles.

 

When we were both clean, I turned off the water and came out of the stall.  Our clothes were gone. In place of my prison-like jumpsuit and Max’s nappy was a clean set of clothes.  Underwear, a sweat shirt and pants. Some coarse towels and a fresh cloth diaper for Max. Keeping him clean in the camp had been a challenge.  In the summer, it was easier to just let him run around bare. This was a large square of fabric and a diaper pin. I had gotten quite good at folding them in the last year.  I was surprised that there wasn’t a more high tech option provided. Max squirmed and wanted to play. I wanted him to hold still long enough for me to get him into the origami fold diaper I was trying to keep hold of.

 

Suddenly the orc was back.  He caught Max and pinned him to the floor, then with a shocking amount of efficiency, he got Max into the diaper I had folded like he has been trained to it.  I fought not to giggle at the idea of a bunch of orc warriors learning diaper folds in basic training. Max stopped squirming and went back to crying. The orc stood up and grabbed me again.  As he dragged me off, Max toddled along crying and wanting me to pick him up.

 

“I don’t understand.  If you are supposed to be his father, why are you hurting him like this?”

 

He didn’t say anything to that, but his whole body tensed and his grip on my arm tightened enough to make me scream and my legs buckle under me.

 

Now he stopped and looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time.   He let go of my arm and I shrieked again as blood flow returned to my fingers.  I collapsed on the floor and sat there holding my son. We were both sobbing. My “mate” was staring at me in disbelief.  One of the other orcs in the hallway muttered something. Someone laughed. Tattoos’ ears darked and his eyes narrowed dangerously.  

 

I squeezed my eyes shut and hunched over Max, trying to shield him with my body incase the giant kicked us.  Nothing happened. After a moment a woman, a human woman came over and knelt next to me.

 

“Are you ok?”

 

I didn’t even know how to begin to answer that.

 

“Come on, let’s get you up.  I’m Doctor Brown. You were on your way to see me anyway.”

 

It didn’t make any sense, but I started to giggle.  I don’t know if I was just so stressed that I was having some sort of break down or what, but the idea of being treated by Doc Brown in the middle of an alien invasion was ridiculous.  All I needed was someone to rant about a bolt of lighting to hit all the science fiction cliches. Max stared at me in horror. Tattoos was looking confused, but I couldn’t stop.

 

Dr Brown just ignored it and tried to help me up.  When she touched my arms, I yelped and the giggling stopped.  She let go of my arm and pushed up my sleeve. A fairly respectable bruise was already starting to form.  It would have been Instagram worthy, back in the day. Dr Brown glared up at the unnamed tattooed guy. Then she looked at me, “Kari? Can you stand?”

 

I nodded.  Pushing myself to my feet wasn’t the best feeling, but once I was upright instead of carrying the weight on my arms it was fine.  Mostly fine. Max came over and took my hand. He was a tall kid, it was easy to forget that he was not yet two. He was still just a baby, really.  This shouldn’t be happening to him.

 

The doc did a full physical on Max first.  It included having him drink from a cup and eat with a spoon.  She asked if he was speaking yet.

 

“Only a few words.  He knows Momma, eat, ball that sort of thing.  He can point to his nose or elbow or whatever if I ask, but he can’t say the words yet.”

 

She made a note of this.  “You are still breastfeeding?”

I blushed and nodded.  “He’s big but he isn’t that old yet and he gets too hungry between meals for me not to.”

 

She nodded and wrote that down too.  Then she looked up and me saying,”You are going to need a physical too.”

 

I swallowed.  “I’m fine.”

 

She turned her head and didn’t look at me when she said, “I’m sorry.  I wish you had the option of refusing. They insist and if I don’t do it, they send in one of their doctors.”

 

I felt a little ill about that.

 

“Christopher,” here she indicated an orc in a set of white surgical scrubs waiting with Tattoos near the door, “will need to observe.  Max can wait out here with … um… his father.”

 

I closed my eyes and fought not to cry, “I don’t want him out of my sight.”

 

Dr Brown nodded, “I can understand that, but it would be better if he wasn’t there for the internal exam.”

 

“Christopher gets to watch the internal exam?” I prayed that I had misunderstood that part.  The doc nodded slowly, while still avoiding eye contact. “I don’t want that.”

 

“I know, but it has to be one of them.”

 

I looked at ‘Christopher’ who was watching me with a grim look of determination on his face.  Then I looked at the doc. Her whole posture screaming that she didn’t want to do this either.  “What happens to you, if I say no?”

 

“I have to watch as they hold you down and someone with bigger hands and no care does it anyway.”

 

I blinked at that.  Then I looked at Christopher’s hands.  They were huge. I couldn’t bring myself to say yes, but I walked into the exam room anyway.  Dr Brown and Christopher followed me in and closed the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on Twitter @pixieunger


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains discussion of a pelvic exam, a medical and the patient goes along with it but isn't exactly happy about it

I started panicking a little as soon as the door clicked shut.  

 

“Hey, it’s OK Kari.  I know this is tough, it will be OK.” The doctor reached out towards me and that was it.  I screamed and jerked back from her.

 

“No!  I can’t do this!  I changed my mind!  Let me out of the room right now!”

 

Tattoos burst into the room and snarled, Christopher snorted a reply.  Doctor Brown cleared her throat, “You can’t blame her. Even under the best circumstances sexual assault victims often don’t want men in the room for their exam.  Hell, often women with no traumatic history will avoid having a male gynecologist.”

 

Christopher growled something that I couldn’t understand, but apparently the doctor could.

 

“Yes, I understand why this needs to happen, but you need to understand that having you involved is like raping her all over again.”

 

That made them both blink, then turn and glare at me.  I was already shaking, but I flinched under their gaze.

 

Tattoos said something.  Christopher disagreed. Tattoos flexed and physically seemed to get bigger.  He cracked his knuckles. Christopher didn’t move his arms but he clenched his fists.  From the other side of the door Max started to cry. Both males immediately turned and went to see him.  Dr Brown closed the door and locked it.

 

“OK.  That’s a little better.”  She held out a box of tissue.  I wiped my eyes and blew my nose.  “Before I do anything, I’m going to talk you through the whole thing.  Understand?”

 

I nodded.

 

“First thing is that I am going to feel your face and neck looking for enlarged lymph nodes.  Then I will have you take off your shirt and I will check your breasts and armpits for the same.  I need to listen to your heart and your lungs. Then you can have your shirt back. I will need to press on your tummy to feel your liver and your bowels.  After that, I will need you to take off your pants. I will feel your groin for lumps, and examine your labia for sores. After that, will be the pap smear and I will also need to take three swabs of your vagina to test for different STIs.  After the speculum is out, I will need to feel the inside of your vagina looking for internal irregularities.”

 

She paused and considered my face for a moment.  “At that point I will change my gloves before I do the rectal exam.  I need swabs from around your anus and inside your rectum as well. I also need to look for hemorrhoids and signs of scarring or prolapse.  After all of that. You will get blood drawn and I’ll send you to collect first and midstream urine samples.”

 

I felt completely numb, but I nodded anyway.

 

“I’m going to be totally honest here.  Depending on how badly you were damaged in the birth, I may also need to do an ultrasound.”

 

“You won’t need that,” my voice was surprisingly flat and dispassionate.

 

“I hope not, Kari, but I want you to be prepared for the possibility,” she replied.

 

I shook my head, “What’s your name?”

 

“I’m Dr Brown.”  She looked at me again, then sighed, “Under the circumstances you can call me Cynthia.”

 

I nodded.  “Let’s get this over with.”

 

I could tell that Cynthia was trying to be kind.  She was very careful. She even warmed the speculum before inserting it.  It didn’t help. I still cried the whole time. It was one thing to go to a doctor you know for a pap after you’ve had time to mentally prepare.  This was something completely different. 

 

After it was done and I was wrapped in a blanket, shaking with KY leaking from my body, she looked at me and started to say something.  She stopped and thought for a moment, then said, “Tell me about Max’s birth.”

 

I shrugged.  “He was born in the spring.  We don’t get doctors in the camps, so there wasn’t anyone to help.  Plenty of gawkers though.”

 

“And his… that is.. The woman who gave birth to him?”

 

If she had asked about his mother, I may very well have kicked her.  “She took one look at his skin, and left him on the ground.”

 

Cynthia nodded slowly.  “And, you picked him up?”

 

“He was just a baby.  IS just a baby. How he came into the world isn’t his fault.”

 

She nodded.  “No, you are right.  It isn’t.”

 

We sat in silence for a while.

 

“There is a portable shower through there,” she pointed to one of the doors in the room.  “If you want to use it. The water is warm, but it only runs for two minutes.”

 

I went and had my two minute shower, scrubbing between my legs as I did so.  When it was over, I got dressed but before I got to the door, Cynthia stopped me.

 

“They are looking for women who can successfully give birth to their children.  I don’t think any of them will try anything while you are breastfeeding. But you need to be aware that is what they want.”

 

I nodded, not sure how to process that.

 

“Do you think you will be able to walk a few miles?”

 

Now I blinked, “What? Why?”

 

“Your…. Whatever you want to call him, will be taking you to look for a house next.  If you can’t walk, I can try to get them to put it off until tomorrow.”

 

‘My…’ Yeah, I was going to need to address that at some point.  I just could not bring myself to think about it just now. Not while by body still felt scraped raw.  “What do you mean, ‘look for a house’?”

 

Cynthia shrugged.  “Pick any unoccupied house in the city and move in.  But they won’t take us in their convoys so you have to walk there.  There are a few of us in the old mansions by the river. The ones between Broadway and Main.  Pick one, they will arrange for heat and water to be turned on.”

 

I considered this, “When do I start learning their language?”

 

Cynthia blinked, “Oh!  They all speak English, they just can’t annunciate very well because of the tusks.  It gets easier to understand with practice.”

 

Now I was angry.  “So Asshole there could understand what I was saying and just chose to ignore it?”

 

“Kari?  You need to reel it in.  I know it is unfair and quite upsetting, but you are small and squishy and you need to be careful with them.  Sure, they want you to take care of Max, but that doesn’t offer you protection.” She stopped and held eye contact with me, “You survived this long.  You need to be careful.”

 

I nodded.

 

Dr Brown opened the door.  Tattoos was standing there cradling a slack and apparently lifeless Max.  My eyes went wide and I started to shake. Cynthia put her hand on my arm.  “He’s breathing. It looks like it is just nap time.” Then she looked at Tattoos.  “You need to support his head better than that.”

 

He carefully adjusted his grip on my son.  I wanted to take Max from him. I wanted my son back.  I also had to admit that he was long past the point where I could hold him like that.  Being cradled, he looked like a normal baby boy. Not the oversized toddler I knew and loved.  I knew that I was staring, but I couldn’t look away.

 

The Asshole was looking at me with a calculating expression.  Then he turned and walked away with my son in his arms. As promised, I followed.

  
  



	4. Chapter 4

We left the school on foot.  It looked like the street around the school, all the houses that backed onto the yard and all the ones facing them had been taken over as barracks. The street past that however, looked like a war zone.  Some of the houses had all been sealed up with something that looked like the wrapping from a vacuum pack. Or maybe the shrinky-dink plastic that clamshell packaging used to be made of. Many of them had smashed windows that were now covered with whatever was encasing the house.

 

Others had just fallen down.  A few had burnt to the ground, their foundations and charred skeletons of their framing all that remained.

 

We had to pass through a checkpoint to get out of the school zone.  The tattooed Asshole holding my son spoke quietly with the guards, who looked at me and laughed.  I tried to concentrate, but it didn’t sound anything like English to me. I shivered and hugged myself rubbing my arms.  It didn’t help that a whole squadron of them came over and pulled out their guns.

 

I don’t know guns, especially not the big ones carried by them, but it looked like they were checking the ammo clips and taking off the safeties.  After a moment Asshole nodded and they moved out. I hurried to keep up. They were moving in formation. Max being carried in the centre, the others over protective ready to defend him. Trailing along after them, I wasn’t given any attention.  It was clear to me that I was likely only being allowed to follow because I was a portable food source.

 

I tried to remember how far it was to the neighbourhood Cynthia had referenced.  It had to be at least an hour walk. I had been pulled out of the food line at lunch and I could already feel hunger gnawing at my stomach.  I didn’t know if Max had been fed lunch, but it had to be getting close to the point where he was going to need to eat again.

 

Sure enough a few blocks later, Max woke up and started fussing.

 

Asshole holding my son gave him a jiggle for a moment and seemed to be making soothing noises.   Max fully opened his eyes, failed to recognize the person holding him and went off like an air raid siren.  I was briefly gratified by the look of panic on the soldiers’ faces before I got worried about what they were going to do about it.

 

“He’s confused and hungry.  He needs to eat.”

 

As soon as Max hear my voice he started squirming and trying to get to me.  The tattooed Asshole kept a firm grip on him. After a moment, Max gave up on struggling and put all his energy into screaming.  I took an involuntary step forward and one of the armed men stepped in front of me, blocking my view. I looked up at him with tears of frustration and rage in my eyes.  “That is my son! You are making him cry. Do you really expect me to stand by and let that happen?”

 

Max toddled over and grabbed me around the knees nearly knocking me over.  I reached down and untangled his chubby little arms and knelt on the ground.  He hugged me tight, wiping his eyes and nose on my shirt. Sometimes being a mom is also being a snot rag.  He was also pulling at my shirt. I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about pulling out a boob with all of the soldiers staring at me.

 

On the other hand, Max needed to eat and this was why I was here.

 

I looked around.  There was a bus stop up the street a little.  “Ok. Look! Chairs!” Someone grabbed my shoulder preventing me from getting up to head over there.  I looked up and the one with the carved up face shook his head, no.

 

“No, I can’t feed him, or no, I can’t go over there to sit down?”

 

He grunted something that could have been stay if I was really stretching to hear the word, but more definitively, he pointed at the ground.  I looked around, “I need something to sit on. Even just a big rock or brick or-”

 

Asshole knelt next to me.  He plopped down his tightly folded jacket and then pulled me over so I was sitting on it.  He stepped back before I could register much more than surprise. Max was still pulling at my shirt, but when I looked up all I could see was a sea of tusked faces looking down at me.  Way down. I shivered. 

 

“Are you supposed to be watching for attackers?”

 

All of them, except for Asshole, turned around and formed a defensive ring around me.  I looked at the last one, but all Asshole was doing was maintaining heavy eye contact. I wanted to stare him down but Max’s noises were getting increasingly frantic.

 

I looked down at my son, took a deep shuddering breath and pulled up my shirt.  Max crawled into my lap and latched on with a blissful sigh. His chubby little dimpled hand patted my chest so gently as his eyes closed and he started to suck.  My boobs aren’t big, so with Max in place I wasn’t really exposed. I reached down and stroked his hair. He patted me again.

 

That was the point where I started to cry.  It suddenly felt real that I was going to be allowed to keep him.  The relief that flooded through me was like a tsunami as it washed over me.  I was glad I was sitting, because I think I would have fallen over from the sudden release of that tension.  Max was my son. And, for now at least, he was still mine.

 

\----

 

I stood up too fast when he was finished.  I will admit I staggered a couple of steps.  I was feeling a little lightheaded. I tried to cover by stooping down to pick up Asshole’s flack jacket.  When I passed him, he was giving me a shrewd, calculating look. He finally pulled a bundle out of his cargo pocket and unwrapped what turned out to be a stack of brown disks.  He offered me one. I frowned at it. It wasn’t something I had seen before. It sort of had the visual texture of uncooked ramen. He pushed it at me again, so this time I took it.

 

I couldn’t figure out what it was.  It was about ten, maybe 12 centimetres across, about a centimetre thick.  It was the colour of peanut butter, but had a weird texture. I looked up at Asshole in confusion.  He took one himself and bit it in half. He chewed and swallowed the half that was in his mouth, but wrapped up the rest and stuffed the package back into his pocket.  It said something about exactly how big he was that this was a two bite snack for him.

 

I gave it an experimental nibble.  It crumbled in my mouth and the individual bit were somehow crunchy and chewy at the same time.  It was like a slightly nutty, rather bland and not at all sweet rice krispie cake. I ate it anyway.  I was thirsty by the end, but too afraid to ask for water. I couldn’t see water bottles on any of them anyway.

 

I could see why they picked Riverside.  It had been the most prestigious neighbourhood in town.  It backed onto the river on three sides, was walled in by a old stone wall on the fourth and had huge Victorian houses on lots that were four or five times the size of yards anywhere else in the city.  It also only had one street in or out, which made it easy to defend. 

 

My feet hurt enough that I knew I had blisters from my new shoes.  Max had tried to walk after his snack but had wanted me to carry him after less than a block.  I managed to do that for a little while, but I was slowing the party down. He was plucked from my arms after maybe fifteen minutes.  I was still conflicted by that. Carrying him hurt my arms and back. Nonetheless, I didn’t like that Asshole had just taken him from me without so much as asking.  

 

At least this time, he had held Max in such a way that he could see me.  I had babbled nonsense about him being a good boy to keep him from crying. I told him it was going to be ok.  I wanted it to be true but I hated that I was lying. I didn’t know everything was going to be fine. I had no idea what was happening.

 

I had no idea why we were taking the long way.

 

By the time we got there, it was getting dark.  My feet had gone from sore to aching to burning, and possibly bleeding, to numb.  I just kept walking. I wasn’t going to let them leave me behind. The guards at the checkpoint were delighted to see Max and openly contemptuous of me.  Dr Brown had lead me to believe I was going to get to choose a house. That wasn’t what happened. We were assigned to one.

 

307 was a massive brick house. It was only two stories high, but they were at least 11 foot ceilings.  The doors were over sized. The front portico was held up by six massive ionic columns each of which was bigger around than I am.  To each side of the entrance was a huge turret with big windows all the way around. The roof was copper that had started to turn green.   We were led in through the front door and up the massive staircase. As we went up we passed one of the soldiers carrying a huge door down.  

 

Asshole led me through the building to the master bedroom at the back. It had a gorgeous view of the river, its own gas fireplace, and an ensuite the size of my bedroom before they came.  There was a clawfoot tub in an alcove behind two pretty shower curtains set up like old fashioned theatre drapes. When you pulled them closed it also blocked the light from the frosted circle window centered to the tub.  A walk in shower and double vanities completed the room.

 

There were still someone else’s products on the vanities.

 

What there wasn’t, was doors.  The door to the bedroom was already gone and as I watched, they popped the hinge pins and removed the double doors to the bathroom.  As the doors left, someone came back with a box and swept all the products off the vanity and into the box. The smell of perfume filled the room as the bottles smashed.

 

I gagged, they started coughing.  “Just leave it, I can clean up the room later.”

 

They stared at me for a moment, then nodded and left.  Asshole sat on the bed with Max. He produced a diaper from somewhere and set about changing him.  I pulled off my shoes, hissing as the skin that had crusted over and scabbed against the sides was ripped away and the blisters opened.

 

I minced my way over to the bathtub and turned on the taps.  There was still running water, so I set it to cold and stuck my feet under the flow.  I pushed down on the plug with my toes as I rolled up my pant legs and sat on the edge of the tub.  Asshole came in a looked at me. He looked at my feet, then he left.

 

With Max.

 

“Wait!” I called struggling to get out of the tub and follow him.

 

He turned and snarled at me and pointed at the tub.

 

“No!  If you are taking him, I am going with you.”

 

He glared at me then stormed out faster than I could follow.  By the time I made it out of the room he was down the stairs and marching off into the house.  One of the soldiers who had walked us in caught my arm. I whimpered as he managed to find the bruises already there.  He pulled his hand away.

 

Speaking slowly and carefully he said, “They come back with food.”  It sounded wrong because there were sounds he couldn’t make around his tusks.  Then his nose twitched and he looked down at my feet. At where I was dripping water and tissue fluid onto the very expensive wool carpet.  He looked back up at me with a puzzled look on his face.

 

I shrugged.  “My new shoes didn’t really fit.”  Then I turned and hobbled back into the bathroom.  It was clear I wouldn’t be chasing down Asshole anytime soon.  

 

I soaked my feet  in cold water until the swelling came down enough that I had toes and not sausages, then carefully patted them dry with the Egyptian cotton waffle towels.  Then I came out to find Max playing with blocks on the carpet.

 

Asshole was sitting in a chair with a tray of food, watching me.  

 

I ignored him and sat down next to Max.

 

The roast beef on the plate smelled amazing.  Glancing over I spotted mashed potatoes and green beans in sauce.   It was the first time I had seen anything resembling real food since before I was rounded up and taken to the refugee camp.  My mouth started to water, my stomach growled, the Asshole just sat there watching me. I looked away. I had to; I was not going to watch him eat his dinner.

 

He said something to us.  I couldn’t understand, so I just ignored him.  Max looked up. Asshole repeated his grunt. Max stood up.   “Max, sit down, baby. Don’t bother the …. man while he’s eating.”

 

Mister Tattoos tried again, this time almost humorously slowly, “Kah-uh-mm hur.”

 

I froze as that sank in.  “Was that ‘come here’? You want us to come over there?”

 

He nodded and held the tray out to me.

 

I was up off the floor and backing away from him so fast it was like I had been electrocuted.  He was here in the room with no doors so I couldn’t lock him out, with me and my son and one big bed.  I started to shake. “I don’t want you!”

 

OK, so that wasn’t the most tactful thing to scream at a man offering me dinner, but it had been a long day at that point and I wasn’t at my most eloquent.  It didn’t matter, he just kept watching me calmly. After a moment, Max started to cry. I sat suddenly on the floor and hugged him as he crawled into my lap.

 

Asshole turned and left.

 

He left the food tray sitting on the bed.

 

By the time Max was asleep and I was brave enough to eat it, everything was cold.  It didn’t matter, it was still the best dinner I had ever eaten.

  
  



	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Housemates has gotten away from me a little and my time for the last couple of weeks has been sucked up with publishing (honestly, I scream a little inside every time I say that). 
> 
> I don't want to deny you content, so I hope you will enjoy some bonus Mistaken

There were soldiers patrolling the house.  One walked past the door every ten minutes or so.  The bed was on full display from the hallway. Max and I slept on the floor in the bathroom.  It wasn’t any harder than sleeping on the ground and it was away from the light shining in through the doorway.

 

Neither of us woke when someone came in and covered us with a blanket.  It had been a long day.

 

I woke to find Max was squirming in my arms.  He did that when he had to pee. I got up and tried to find a new diaper for him in the dark.  Sure enough, Asshole was sleeping in the bed. There weren’t any diapers that I could find, but I ran water in the sink to soak the wet one. I put Max in a carefully folded towel without waking him up.  Then I wrapped us in the blanket and stared at the bathroom doorway.

 

There wasn’t anything I could do if my “mate” decided to come in here to get me.  That was terrifying. 

 

I was still sitting there, fear keeping me awake when he came in to the bathroom the next morning. He stopped in the doorway and stared at me for a moment.  He grunted something.

 

“I can’t understand what you are saying.”

 

His eyes narrowed and I flinched.  He stepped into the bathroom and to the side of the doorway.  He pointed at his chest then to the toilet.

 

I scooped up Max and ran for it.

 

——

 

Ok, I have to admit that breakfast was good. I couldn’t complain about the food. We ate in the formal dining room at a table for twenty.  It was eggs and toast. I pretty sure there was even real butter.  

 

Afterwards, I was led back to the master bedroom.  Asshole rummaged through the walk in closet to find me anything that would fit.  It ended up being a wrap dress. Who ever had owned the clothes was both older and heavier than I am.   Before they had come, I wouldn’t have been caught dead in this outfit. Now I was just happy to have something clean.  The bedroom slippers were soft and sloppy but didn’t rub on my blisters. I wasn’t going to be able to walk very far in this get up.

 

I wasn’t overly pleased that the soldiers were staring at me as Asshole led me out of the house, but I was too excited about going to the park to really worry too much.

 

The thing about Riverside is that it was build in the 1920’s.  There was a post war boom going on and Riverside was a nice little peninsula where the super rich of the day could live without having to integrate into regular society.  It was only really two streets. One ran parallel to the river, it held the 5000 square foot or bigger dwelling of the ultra rich. There were about thirty houses that backed onto the river, each one had a sprawling yard. They all fronted on to the park.  It was the community green space with trees, a playground, tennis courts and a nice little jogging path around the whole thing. 

 

Across from the park was the smaller houses.  And by smaller I still mean 3000 square foot, stately homes.  They had smaller lots and backed on to the hill with the stone wall at the top.  There was one road up the hill. It was the only way to get into Riverside by land.  

 

Of course, the people with river lots all had boats.  Why wouldn’t they? These smaller homes were owned but successful doctors, lawyers, the arch chancellor of the university.  The kind of people I could see the knobs looking down on as nouveau riche. People who had earned their money, instead of just inheriting it.   

 

I had heard stories about the park.  Often in terms of people being reported for suspicious activity if they came to the (in theory) public park when they didn’t live in Riverside.  It wasn’t a gated community, but it might as well have been.

 

Max and I were currently walking to the biggest, best maintained playground in the city.

 

I recognized the some other boys from our refugee camp.  In addition to the ones I recognized there were a number I didn’t.  I could see the other moms. I could see Henry, William and James. What I couldn’t see was their dads.  Or Rita, who was Patrick’s “Grandmother.” 

 

Janice was there, but only physically, she was staring at nothing.  I hurried over to her. Kathryn caught my arm. “Don’t. We had our ‘physicals’ yesterday.  Basically, two of the monsters pinning us to an exam table while we screamed and a human doctor did the full blown anal probing thing.”  Kathryn was bitter and I could see where she had been crying. “Janice just gave up.”

 

Kathryn had bruises that matched the ones on my arms, but hers extended to her neck as well.

 

“Where’s Rita?” I asked.

 

She snorted, “They only brought the parents who might pop out another baby.”

 

The boys who didn’t have their parents were huddled together, not playing with Max or the others.  I didn’t like any of the implications of that.

 

Kathryn nodded to where Asshole was standing with some other unarmed orcs watching us.  “Which one is yours?”

 

I looked away, “The one with the tattoos.  The human tattoos.”

 

Kathryn nodded.  “I picked the shortest one on offer.” Then she gave a bitter laugh, “Not that it matters, he’s still a foot taller than me.  At least it isn’t two feet.”

 

I had to ask, even if I didn’t want to know, “Has he hurt you yet?”

 

Kathryn shook her head, “Nope.  It’s been more like the textbook ‘how to give someone stockholm syndrome’ treatment.”

 

I shivered.  “I’m going to go sit down.”  Harry and Martin King, Rita McLeod, and I had been close.  The adoptive parents group of sorts. I was worried about them and what their boys must be going through without them.  I went to sit by their kids, who swarmed me calling for their parents. I held as many as I could, not knowing what to say. 

 

After a while, Asshole and four others came over.  The others started to pull the boys away from me. “Wait!” I shouted.

 

I was amazed that they did.  They all stopped and looked at me expectantly.  Shit. Now what should I say.

 

“These boys all lost their families.  I’m not hurting them. I’m just a grown up who isn’t a stranger.”

 

The one holding William who had better English than Asshole said, “I his family now.”

 

I gritted my teeth.  “Yeah, you can say that.  It doesn’t make it true for William.  You are still just a stranger dragging him away from someone he knows and trusts.”

 

They had a quiet, snarling discussion, during which William squirmed out of the male’s grasp and grabbed me instead.

 

“Listen, that old guy, the general or whatever, recognized that children need continuity.  Bringing Rita and the guys to stay with their boys would provide that continuity. Even if you can’t rape them to make more sons.”  That last sentence came out more angry than I intended.  

 

That made them all stare at me.  Then they left. The boys stayed with me.

 

Someone who didn’t know how children worked had planned a picnic lunch - right in the middle of nap time.  Everyone was crabby and exhausted by then. I was sitting in the shade with my back against a tree and five little boys sleeping on me like a puddle of puppies. Most of the others were hangry and crying.   In the meantime a battalion of orcs had set up a buffet table and were trying to wrangle screaming children and dissociating moms into eating. I just watched.  

 

I was warm and comfortable in what should have been a lovely autumn morning.  Asshole came over and stared down at me. I ignored him. He was back a moment later holding a plate with a whole roast lake trout, some baby potatoes and carrots.  He tried to get me to take it.

 

I shook my head.  “Hands full of sleeping babies just now.  Besided, I’m not sure how to eat that.

 

He sat down next to me and pulled out a pocket knife.  He quickly filleted the fish, and offered me a bite sized piece on the end of his knife.  I shook my head again. “I’m not letting you stick a knife in my mouth.”

 

He grumbled as he stood up and stomped off like a seven foot tall toddler, but he was back a moment later with a fork trying to feed me fish.

 

I frowned.

 

He smiled evilly, then made a passable train noise as he pushed the fork towards my mouth.  I managed to untangle an arm from around Henry and take the fork from him. “Save it for the kids,” I snapped.

 

He didn’t say anything.  He just sat there silently grinning like a idiot, holding the plate while I ate.

 

All five boys stayed with me that afternoon.  When Max came over to nurse, each of the boys was offered a bottle of milk by their new father.  Patrick was prepared to go along with this, but Henry, William and James were not letting anyone separate them.  Their fathers did not seem overly impressed by that. I closed my eyes as silent tears ran down my cheeks before I was able to force myself to stop it.

 

I just cuddled Max close.

 

Something rough scratched my face and my eyes snapped open to see Asshole poking me in the cheek.  My whole body recoiled away from him and all the boys in my lap started crying.

 

Some of the orcs watching me started to laugh.  Most of them hurried to try to comfort the three King boys.

 

“Just stop.  Please.”

 

Great, now they were looking at me.

 

“None of us want any of you touching us.  They want their dads back. They want to not be separated from their brothers.  We just all want to be safe. Having you grabbing or poking at us doesn’t feel safe.  If you want these boys to grow up to be mentally stable people, you need them to have a stable family.”  I swallowed and looked down at Max who was watching me with an eerie silence. “None of them will be helped by you torturing their moms.” There was no response. “Not that I expect that matters,” I added bitterly.

 

Asshole snarled something at me that I didn’t even try to understand.  Then he snatched up Max and stormed back to the house with my now screaming son.  I jumped up to run after him. The King boys tried to follow, but were restrained by their new guardians.  I couldn’t call those monsters fathers.

 

“Wait!”

 

Asshole just ignored me.

 

“Please wait!”  My feet still hurt and trying to keep up in slippers wasn’t working.

 

“Stop!”

 

Nothing.

 

Damn.

 

Screw it.

 

I kicked off the slippers and sprinted after him on my toes, the gravel and dirt on the road biting into my skin.  My feet were a lot tougher than they had been before the invasion but the ground still hurt. I ignored it.

 

I was almost caught up when Asshole got to the door.  The guard said something and Asshole turned and snarled at me.  I tried to stop, slipped on the leaves and landed on my backside.

 

Fuck.  That hurt too.

 

Max had stopped just screaming and settled on yelling “Mum! Mum!”

 

Asshole glared at Max with a look of absolute rage on his face.

 

“Don’t hit him! Please!”

 

That made everything stop.

 

Asshole, the guards, the random orcs walking past, they all stopped what they were doing to stare at me.  I scrambled to my feet. “He’s just a little boy who’s scared. Please don’t hurt him!”

 

Asshole looked at me in disgust as he stomped towards me.  I took an involuntary step back. Then forced myself to step forward.  I was shaking, small and pathetic, but I was not going to back down when he had my son.  Max was thrust into my arms before a huge grey hand landed on my back and pushed me into the house.

 

Even with him clinging to me and my using both arms to hold him, I staggered under Max’s weight.  I was basically pushed to the stairs, then he grabbed my arm and pulled me back to the room where we had stayed last night.  Once we through the empty door frame, Asshole strode away.

 

Max and I were both crying by then.  I lead him into the bathroom to clean my feet again.  Antibiotics were a thing of the past. If my cuts or blisters got infected, it was a death sentence.

 

I got Max out of his diaper and gave him a bath too.  I didn’t have another diaper. The towels remaining in the bathroom were too big.  I peaked out into the bedroom and tried to see if I could find any. The guard who caught me bleeding on the carpet last night came past.  He stopped to look at us for a moment, then kept moving. He was back a moment later with a stack of clean diapers. He didn’t hand them to me.  He set them on the floor just outside the doorway and pushed them into the room with his foot.

 

That was weird.

 

I wrangled Max into a clean one then led him back into the bathroom.  At least that way they weren’t staring at us. I used one of the clean flat diapers and some of the hair elastics from the drawers in the bathroom to make him a doll.  He hugged it and rubbed his face on it.

 

“I don’t know if they will let you keep that, my lad.  I don’t even know if they will let you keep me. But everyone needs a lovely to cuddle.”

  
  



	6. Chapter 6

Asshole came back while I was telling Max the story of Goldilocks and the three bears.  He had a newly split lip and a bit of a black eye. He sat a food tray on the floor at the doorway to the bathroom and slid it towards me in a movement reminiscent of the guard with the diapers.   

 

I stared up at him.

 

He made a sound of disgust then turned his back on us, stripped naked and crawled into the bed.

 

It was roast chicken leg and carrots.

 

I let Max eat first.

 

There was some left.  It was nice. There wasn’t a blanket, but there were big towels to use to 

make a nest.  This time instead of huddling against the furthest wall, we took the corner inside the door.  The sun was low and there wasn’t much light coming in through the window.  

 

Max had nodded off when I heard the commotion on the stairs.  I wrapped my son in the makeshift blankets before creeping out to peer into the hallway.

 

Harry and Martin King and their boys were coming up the stairs even as the orcs were taking the door off another of the bedrooms.  The two men had been roughed up. Martin had some stitches in his cheek. They had both been shaved. The important thing was that they were alive and with their boys.

 

No sign of Rita or Patrick, but the Kings being all back together gave me hope.

 

Harry saw me coming towards them and took a step towards me.  The guards were immediately between them.

 

“How bad it it?” I called out.  Now there was a soldier in front of me.

 

“Nothing as bad as what you ladies already went through,” Martin said bitterly.

 

Harry blurted out, “Don’t fight them Kari.  You can’t win. Just don’t … make it worse.”

 

I felt like I was going to be sick.

 

The one standing way too close to me chuckled.

 

There was soft crunching noise behind me.

 

All the guards stood down.

 

Harry went white.

 

I looked over my shoulder.

 

There was Asshole, in all his naked glory, leaning against the door jam, cracking his knuckles.

 

I looked back at the King Family. “I don’t even know what to say.  I’m glad you’re alive.”

 

Martin’s voice was off when he said, “How bad is it that just staying alive has become a goal?”

 

“Yeah.”  I looked at my feet.  The carpet had rubbed open the cuts and I was bleeding a bit again.  “I’d be about ready to give up on that if I wasn’t trying to protect Max.”

 

Martin and Harry nodded.

 

The closet doors from the room next door went past.

 

“Can I see your room?” I asked.  Before either of the Kings could respond, the guards took a more aggressive stance.  “I guess not.”

 

I jumped as Asshole put his arm around my shoulder.  He growled. The soldiers left. He steered me over to the newly opened bedroom.  It was smaller than the one he had. It had a queen bed instead of a king. It’s ensuite didn’t have the walk in shower.  The colours were more masculine. There were tattered posters of fancy cars hanging on the walls and bottles of Axe in the bathroom.

 

“Home, sweet home,” Martin muttered.

 

Harry glared at him, “You don’t get to complain when she has that…. Touching her.”

 

Asshole stiffened.

 

“They can all understand us,” I said carefully.  “Even if we can’t understand them.”

 

Now they looked at me in horror.

 

“I should go.  Try to get some sleep.  Breakfast yesterday was good.”

 

Harry nodded, “That’s something.  Maybe you’ll start getting enough calories to -” he stopped and looked at me.  “Was there only breakfast?”

 

“Lunch was nice too.  I pissed people off after that so only Max got dinner, but-”

 

Asshole snarled, tightened his grip on my shoulders and led me out of the room.  I was maneuvered back to the bathroom where Max was sleeping and left there. 

 

I was settling into the makeshift nest of towels when Asshole got back.  He repeated the foot slide maneuver, this time with a blanket and a plate of sandwiches.  Then he stood in the doorway watching me. When I didn’t make any move towards his offering, he nudged it again.

 

“You are less threatening when you are wearing pants.”

 

He glared at me and said something I still couldn’t understand.  When I didn’t respond he went back to bed. I ate the sandwiches, managed to drink some water from the tap, then tried to clean the carpet out of the scrapes on my feet

 

\-----

 

I woke to the sound of the shower turning on.  It wasn’t full light out yet. Max was making little rooting noises.  I curled around him and let him nurse so we could both go back to sleep.

 

The next time I woke it was to Asshole saying something.  I concentrated on what before I opened my eyes and realized it was multiple attempts to say my name.  None of them were right, but he was getting closer. I blinked and sat up.

 

“Aw-sh!”

 

“What?”

 

He pointed at the shower.  Oh. I swallowed. “Could you wait out there?  Please?”

 

His eyes narrowed, then he picked up Max and carried him out to the bed.  I took a step after him, but he was just getting a clean diaper.

 

“Aw-sh!”

 

“Yeah, yeah.”

 

I scrubbed down, washed my hair then sat on the floor of the shower and looked at me feet.  A couple of the cuts felt hot and I didn’t like that. I wrapped up in a towel before going into the bedroom closet and looking for a pair of socks.  

 

I found some clean trouser socks in the wife’s side of the closet.  Her panties were so big on me they fell down. I would have fit them three years ago, but food had been hard to come by for some time now.  I ended up in a pair of the husband’s sweat pants with the drawstring cinched up tight and one of her blouses that buttoned in the front. I looked ridiculous, but I was covered.

 

I would have just worn the dress from yesterday, but it was gone when I got out of the shower.

 

Someone had found Max clothes that fit.  A cute little pair of overalls, a barbie T-shirt and a pair of shoes.  Well, shoes, anyway. One was purple and the other was green. The purple one lit up, the green one squeaked.  Max was excitingly stamping his feet, clearly delighted. I smiled at him.

 

“Pretty spiffy Max.”

 

That earned me a hug.

 

Asshole frowned at me.  I sighed and closed my eyes.

 

“Kari.”

 

Now I looked at him.  He was holding out his hand.  I looked at it for a long moment hoping he would just stop that.  He didn’t. When I finally took his hand, he led me down to breakfast.

 

The Kings were just finishing up.  They were fresh scrubbed but still wearing their clothes from the camp.  “Morning! There are still clothes in the closet in the main room if you want to see if anything fits.”

 

Asshole choked on his toast.

 

Harry and Martin both jumped.  “Are we allowed to do that?”

 

I sagged, “I don’t know.  How big was the person who’s things are in the closet in your room?”

 

Martin shrugged, “Smaller than us.  Hard to say if any of it would fit you.”

 

I stopped trying to feed Max some egg.  “Could I try?”

 

They looked at Asshole.  

 

I gave up and went back to trying to get Max to eat.  “Come on, kid, you can’t live on carbs alone. Even if you love the toast you need some protein as well.”

 

Max pointed at Asshole who, when I looked, was stuffing most of a piece of bread into his mouth.

 

“Fine. I’ll eat the egg and you can’t have any!”

 

That was the wrong thing to say.  The orcs at the table all tensed. One of them stood up.  Asshole stood up. Max grabbed the egg in his chubby little hands as stuffed it into his mouth.  Everyone sat back down again. I tried to get my heart rate to return to normal.  

 

Harry leaned across the table, “I don’t think they have much practical experience with kids, Kari.  Might be better not to make them think you would keep Max from eating.”

 

I was shocked.  “I would never do that!”

 

“Do they know that?” Martin asked quietly.

 

I frowned.  Max was a cute little chubby two year old, even if he happened to be the size of a five or six year old normal kid.  I was painfully aware that I could feel my ribs as I washed and I finally had the thigh gap that had been a sought after thing before the invasion.  How could they not know that Max ate first?

 

Max was licking yolk off his fingers and saying “egg!”  Two more hit his plate, then another one was added to mine.  We made it through breakfast without any further disruptions, but the three of us pretty much stopped talking after that.

 

When they were finished, the kids wandered away from the table to go play.  None of us adults moved, waiting instead for directions. I looked around the table and realized that the boys’ new orc fathers were all there too.  I didn’t know what to think of that.

 

Eventually, Asshole stood up and went into the kitchen.  I wasn’t sure what to do about that so I went over to where Max and William were taking turns hugging the diaper doll I had made.  “You two are both so good! Sharing so nicely!”

 

One of the orc fathers snorted and stormed off at that.  Shit. I couldn’t do anything right.

 

Asshole was back holding a steaming mug of something brown.  It smelled a bit like hot chocolate, a bit like mint and a bit like something else I couldn’t quite name.  He looked at me then held out his hand for Max who took it. He led Max through the house. I hobbled after them.  The two remaining orcs herding the other boys after us and Harry and Martin bringing up the rear.

 

He took us to the house’s library.  I was directed to one of the wingback chair by the unlit fireplace and handed the mug.  Then Asshole looked at the shelves and brought me one of those little kids books with one word and one picture on each page.  I took a slurp of the drink, which had a chalky aftertaste, then set it on a conveniently placed side table.

 

“Max!  Come read a story!”

 

He had never seen a book before.  He crawled into my lap and James came over to try to see too.  Suddenly I was playing kindergarten teacher and being swarmed by kids.  Asshole caught Max, sat on the floor and plopped my son in his lap. They both looked at me expectantly.  I fought a smile. Arguably they didn’t really look alike, aside from both being grey with tusks, but the look of anticipation was strikingly similar.

 

“Storytime!” Martin announced.  He and Harry sat down too and their boys climbed into their laps.  

 

A scuffle broke out between the other two orcs. Not a fight, more like a bit of a shoving match.  Not even as bad as two moms fighting for the last special toy at a Black Friday sale. The winner came over and plucked Henry off of Harry’s lap and slid William over from Martin’s lap instead.  Then he sat next to a decidedly uncomfortable looking Harry and copied Asshole.

 

“OK.  Um…” I held up the book and read “Apple.”

 

Asshole tried to repeat the word.  I stared at him in shock. He tried again.  OK.

 

The boys had seen apples, sort of.  There was a crab apple tree in the school yard where we had been living.  The apples were tiny and sour. People fought over them anyway, exactly like two moms over the last special toy at Black Friday sale.

 

“Ball.”

 

The boys all knew that one, but the rag ball they played with didn’t look anything like the football in the picture.  Asshole tried to say that one too. His vowel sounds were wrong.

 

“Cat.”  No one had seen a cat in years, or a “Dog.”

 

“Egg.”

 

Max cheered that one.  Asshole made it sound like “ick.”

 

We made it all the way through to Zebra and the boys started calling “Again!”

 

Asshole put Max in my lap and got another book.

 

This one was called  Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus .  The boys had no idea what a bus was, or a pigeon, but Harry and Martin put effort into the parts where the audience was to say ‘No!’ so the boys joined in.

 

After that was  Guess How Much I Love You , which the boys listened intently too, even if I teared up reading it.

 

At which point the left over dad turned up with a plate of snacks and reading time came to a halt.  Max hurried over to get some grapes. I stood up, fought not to wince and sat back down as pain shot up the backs of my legs.

 

Martin shot me a worried look, “Are you OK?”

 

I forced a smile.  “I’m fine.” While everyone else was eating, I pressed gingerly on my feet.  The places that were hot this morning were still hot and now felt a bit puffy.  I sat on the floor and put one of the throw pillows under them. Asshole brought me a plate with some cheese and fruit.

 

“What’s your name?” I finally asked.

 

There was a long sentence I didn’t understand. Then one of the others with smaller tusks said, “Gor’ash. He tell you pick one.”

 

I looked away.  “This would be a good time for the boys to stop for morning nap.”  There was a ringing silence. “Yesterday, we missed morning naps and everyone was crabby by lunch,” I explained to Harry and Martin.  

 

Martin cleared his throat, “Will they let us go back to our room for that?”

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“They would sleep better in the bed,” Harry argued with me as though it was my decision.  I looked at the tattooed wonder.

 

“Shl - eep un ‘ed?”

 

Martin gasped, “Shit.  I think I even understood that.”

 

I didn’t want to make more trips up and down the stairs.  Max and I slept on the tile in the bathroom anyway.

 

Harry nodded, “The boys would sleep better in bed.”

 

One of the others snarled, “With you?”

 

I flinched.  Harry looked away.  Martin showed why he was the one with stitches on his face when he snapped back, “They have been sleeping on the ground with us since they were newborns.  Don’t your children sleep with their parents?”

 

“Um,” I said definitively.  “They all have claimed ownership of the boys.  They think they are the parents.”

 

“Then they are doing a piss poor job of it by not letting the boys nap.”

 

The whole room held its collective breath.  Asshole flexed his shoulders and tilted his head making his joints go off like bubble wrap.  All I could think in that moment was that he was going to have arthritis in a few years.

 

“Schl - eep un ‘ed.”  It wasn’t a question this time.  He held out his hand to Max who looked at me.  I managed to get to my feet. Max came over and took my hand instead.

 

Asshole made a show of hanging his head and looking sad while watching Max with a twinkle in his eye.  Then he beckoned to us and scooped up my mostly empty mug before heading out of the library and back to the stairs.

 

Holding Max’s hand I hobbled along after him.  Harry, Martin and their boys followed.

 

“Are you OK?” Harry asked.

 

I nodded.  “I’m fine.”  There wasn’t anything anyone could do about it anyway, so there wasn’t any point in complaining.

 

\----

 

I was eventually able to get Max to fall asleep in my lap, then I was able to put him on the bed.  Asshole grinned and gestured, clearly wanting me on the bed too.  

 

I sat on the corner.

 

“Schl-eep.”

 

“You make me too afraid to sleep,” I whispered.

 

He frowned.  I flinched. He left.  I curled up on the floor next to the bed and eventually nodded off.

  
  



	7. Chapter 7

“Yeah, the kids get the bed and we sleep on the floor too.”  I sat up. Harry was talking to me from the doorway. A soldier was standing ready to attack if he tried to come into the room.  Harry was ignoring him. “You have a king sized bed and only one kid, though, you would fit.”

 

“Ah- um… that is…. The orc in charge of us sleeps in the bed.”

 

Harry’s lip curled at that.  “Oh.”

 

“Yeah.”  I sat up and gently touched my foot.  They were hurting a bit more just now.

 

“Something is wrong.”

 

I looked around nervously.

 

Harry shook his head, “something is wrong with you and you are hiding it.”

 

“It’s nothing.  I got a few blisters on the walk over here.  My feet hurt a bit.”

 

“Can I see?” Harry asked stepping forward.  The soldier pushed him back hard enough to throw him to the ground. 

 

I hurried over but Henry’s orc made it there first and shoved the soldier back.  They stood toe to toe growling and snarling at each other. Then the soldier backed down.  The winner glared at Harry then me then snarled, “eat!” and pointed down the stairs.

 

“Can we wait until the kids wake up?” I asked.

 

He frowned at me.

 

Harry got up.  “If you want to wake them, come give it a try and see how well that works.”

 

I covered my mouth and fought not to snicker.  Henry was the soundest sleeper I have ever seen.  He didn’t want to go to sleep and there was basically nothing you could do to make him wake up once he was.  That kid slept through thunderstorms. Other kids screaming. Martin or Harry trying to get him up to eat. He was just a floppy, unconscious boy with a slight tendency to snore the only indication that he wasn’t dead.

 

I was pretty sure this guy wouldn’t actually hurt Henry, but I could just imagine him trying to wake the kid up.

 

Everyone else would be up and screaming though, so I suggested, “another twenty minutes?”

 

He nodded.

 

“What’s your name?” Harry asked.

 

“Andrew.”

 

“What, really?” I asked in disbelief.

 

Andrew shrugged then nodded.

 

“Thanks, Andrew,”  I said and I meant it.

 

He frowned at me.  Then went back to wait at the doorway of the Kings’ room.

 

When we went down for lunch Asshole was waiting with two plates ready for Max and me.  There was another mug of the hot drink steaming next to my plate. The orc that had stormed off after breakfast was back with a teddy bear for William.  Both Martin and Harry looked nervous at that, but neither of them said anything as their one son was suddenly immeasurably richer than his siblings.

 

I was concentrating on getting Max to eat when Harry said, “Your name is Gor-ash, right?”

 

Asshole frowned as he shook his head slowly indicating no.

 

Harry shrugged, “Did you know Kari has sores on her feet?”

 

“Harry, don’t.”

 

“You can hardly walk anymore.  I want to know if he was too oblivious to notice or if he just doesn’t care.”

 

Asshole was suddenly up out of his chair, he slammed his fists on the table and absolutely roared at Harry.  Every kid in the place started to cry. Every male who had claimed a son glared at Asshole. He hesitated, looked at me, then left.

 

It took awhile to get Max to settle down and even longer to get him to eat.  By then the orcs were starting to usher us out. Harry and Martin resolutely refused to get out of their chairs.  Even when Andrew came over and made a point pulling out Harry’s chair and gesturing to the door.

 

It was Martin who said, “Kari didn’t get a chance to eat.  Mr Grumpy Bear scared Max and she spent all her time taking care of him.”

 

“It’s fine.”

 

Harry shook his head, “You need to take care of yourself, otherwise you won’t be able to take care of Max.”

 

The other parents sat back down and looked at me.

 

Great.  I started trying to eat quickly.  Martin reached across the table and put his hand on my arm.  “It’s ok, you don’t have to rush. We will wait. Don’t make yourself sick.”

 

Someone whose name I didn’t know grabbed Martin’s chair and pulled it away from the table so he couldn’t reach me anymore.  

 

I sighed, “They really don’t understand how we work.”  Then I carefully ate my lunch.

 

\----

We were back in the library after lunch.  This time Harry and Martin took turns reading.  That let me sit with Max and three extra fathers take turns sitting with the boys.  William did a surprisingly good job of sharing his bear. That made his orcfather frown but he didn’t say anything.  

 

Actually - 

 

I leaned over to the one holding James and asked, “What’s your name?”

 

He scrambled out of my way like I had threatened him.  The other orcs in the room were looking at me funny. “Right.  No asking for names.”

 

Martin cleared his throat.  “We raise our children together.  Kari, us, and the others. If you are going to be spending time around Max it would be good to know everyone’s names.”

 

Andrew looked at him and shook his head no.

 

The three of us shared a nervous look.  Martin went back to reading Peter Rabbit.  For a home library, they had quite good selection of books.  There was a whole book case of children’s books then a random assortment of books ranging up in age to about ten.  No young adult level books but a good selection of history books, bird watching books, political thrillers and books about gardening.  The sort of things you would find in a house of readers rather than the sort of people that bought books to display.

 

At the end of Peter Rabbit, we moved on to Benjamin Bunny.  That’s when Asshole got back. He had Dr Brown and Christopher with him.  Dr Brown was carrying Patrick and looking smug. Patrick did not look happy to be there.

 

“Where’s Rita?”  It was out before I could stop myself.

 

Dr Brown’s smile went from smug to fake.  “Um. She … didn’t pass her physical.”

 

I felt sick at that.  A quick look at the guys showed the same concern on their faces.  Cynthia noticed.

 

“I hear you are having some problems with your feet,” she deflected.  “Let’s have a look.” She set Patrick down to get her bag. The boy ran over to me.

 

Juggling the two of them in my lap, I asked, “What happens if I don’t pass my physical?”

 

She blinked, “You already did.”

 

“Yeah, but now you want to see my feet.  I want to know what happens to me if you don’t like what you find.”

 

“Oh!   _ You _ will be fine.” The slight stress on the word ‘you’ did not ease my fears.

 

I looked up at Asshole who was watching Patrick with interest.  “I know this isn’t going to matter, but I don’t want Dr Brown looking at my feet.”

 

Asshole looked at Christopher.  The ensuing discussion was not in English.  Suddenly any orc with a stake in the game picked up their son and left.  Andrew nodded to Harry and Martin to follow.

 

Once they were gone, Dr Brown turned to me and said, “Someone will take the boys, then we’ll get started.”

 

She was clearly not expecting a soldier grab her from behind and physically carry her out of the room.  That left the two boys, Christopher, Asshole and me.  

 

Mr Grumpy Bear, as Harry had named him, sat down next to, but not touching me.  He pantomimed taking off his socks. Christopher was opening the old fashioned looking doctor’s bag.  He put on some gloves and sat on the floor near my feet. Then they both waited.

 

“It’s not that bad,” I insisted.

 

Christopher was mostly understandable, “then show.”

 

I sighed.  When I went to pull off the trouser socks they were stuck to my feet in a couple of places.  Christopher pulled out a bottle of something and dabbed at the sticking places with a piece of gauze that had been soaked in whatever that was.  Once my first sock was off, he put a drug patch on the top of my foot. Max was watching intently.

 

Asshole lured the boys away with the Pigeon book.  His pronunciation was still terrible, but they joined in shouting “no!” at the appropriate parts.

 

When I looked back, Christopher had a tight looking grip on my ankle that I couldn’t actually feel and was cutting into the sole of my foot with a scalpel. I tried to pull my foot away.  It barely twitched in his grasp. Completely ignoring me, Christopher set down the scalpel and put another drug patch on my foot.

 

After that, the world was reduced to a series of moments.

 

Asshole picking me up off the floor.

 

Asshole laying me on the island in the kitchen.

 

Christopher using the island sink to wash my feet.

 

Asshole slathering them with something that burned.

 

Waking up on bed upstairs, with Asshole  [ wrapping a piece of fabric around my left foot ](https://snarkynomad.com/portyanki-russian-footwraps/) .  The right one was already done.  One of the drug patches were sitting on the blanket next to my foot.  I guessed the other was under the bandages. 

 

It took me a couple of tries to be able to speak.  “Do I still have all my toes?”

 

He just snorted.

 

“Oh.  How many do I have left?”

 

He finished wrapping my foot then held up both hands, “ ‘en o’s.”

 

I breathed a sigh of relief, “See?  Not so bad.”

 

Now he narrowed his eyes at me, “ba ah duh.” he said slowly and carefully.

 

“Oh.”  I paused before adding “Where’s Max?”

 

“Pah trick.”

 

That got me sitting bolt upright, “You gave him to Cynthia Brown?”

 

Asshole curled a lip in disgust and snarled as he shook his head no.

 

“Good!  Rita was older, but not old.  She was healthier than I am. There is no way I would believe I passed my physical and she didn’t.”  I thought for a moment. “Is there a way for me to see her? Could she come here like Harry and Martin did?”

 

Asshole let go of my foot and took a step back.  He watched me for a moment, then shook his head.

 

“Is she OK?”

 

Again, he shook his head, no.

 

“Oh.  But how did Patrick end up with Cynthia?”

 

Shrug.

 

“Something isn’t right here.  I mean I can understand someone doing something to Rita if it meant they would get out of the camp where we were staying.  Hell, the improvement in the quality of the food alone is very nearly enough to make someone do something drastic. But Cynthia was already living in a house.”

 

Asshole frowned.  This was the first time I noticed that his ears also pinned back against his head.

 

I made an undignified squeak and pulled my feet back.  “Sorry! I’ll leave it alone. Can I go get Max now?”

Nodding, Asshole picked me up and fireman carried me out to the back lawn.  There were all five boys, three teddy bears, and two gay men, but no sign of a partridge in a pear tree.  No Cynthia, but Christopher was watching from the fence with the other orcs.

 

After setting me on the ground with about as much grace as if I were a sack of potatoes, Asshole went over and had a quiet word with the other orcs.  They kept peeking at me over his shoulder.

 

Harry came over and sat a good six feet away from me. “Oooh, I don’t like the looks of that.”

 

I looked at him, “Why are you sitting all the way over there?”

 

“I found out why you didn’t get Carl’s name earlier,”  he smirked.

 

“Oh, this is going to be good.”

 

“Yeah.  They’re all afraid that if any of us big strong males get too close to you, we will be overcome with lust and accidentally have sex with you.”

 

“Oh, be serious!”

 

“I am.”  He positively cackled the last sentence.  “Apparently Tattoos over there beat the shit out of a number of people yesterday to get me and Martin transferred here.  No one wants to piss him off.”

 

“Which one is Carl?”

 

“The one responsible for James.  Tyler is William’s godfather.”

 

I shook my head, “I still can’t believe their names are Carl and Tyler.”

 

Harry shrugged, “They aren’t.  But apparently they know we won’t be able to pronounce their names so they are going with human ones.”

 

“But still… Carl?”

 

“Could be worse.  Could be Dick.”

 

“Jesus!” I laughed, “Maybe I should christen Asshole Richard.”

 

Harry laughed, “Is that what you call him?”   
  


“Only in the privacy of my own head.”

 

“I don’t know.  While you were gone, they brought Janice for a visit.  She was also having a hard time walking, but there is nothing wrong with her feet.”

 

“I think Rita is dead,” I whispered.

 

Harry didn’t say anything for a long moment.  “Is he hurting you?”

 

“He is scaring me.”

 

“Yeah.  But they are all like that.  Is he hurting you? He yelled at me.  Is he trying to scare you or is he just big and scary?”

 

I thought about that.  “I could do with less nudity.  He ran off with Max when I could hardly follow, that made my feet worse.  He hasn’t hit me, yet. He hasn’t raped me, yet. But those are pretty low standards to hold someone to.”

 

Harry nodded.  “Yeah. Welcome to hell.”

  
  



	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That last chapter was a little later than I had planned. I hit a hard deadline to get my next book up on Amazon and that too all my spare time for a couple of days.
> 
> This one is a bit early. It wasn't supposed to go up until Friday, but if SweetHarty is going to take time in the middle of a hurricane to say thanks for the chapter, I am absolutely going to say thank you for the comment with an early post.

Asshole was up to something.  I would say he was making me nervous, but my anxiety had been at 10/10 for the last three years so …  

 

In the meantime, Max had dumped whoever’s bear he had been playing with to plaster himself to my side as soon as he saw me there.  Three bears, five kids, I was willing to bet Patrick didn’t have one either. He was playing with Max’s rag doll instead. Well, they were easy enough to make.  I wasn’t going to be running after him for a while. I still couldn’t feel my feet which did not suggest that trying to walk on them would be a good idea.

 

The decrepit orc who had made me choose a mate turned up and spoke at length with the congregation of soldiers.  They kept looking at me. Shit.

 

“That can’t be good,” Harry whispered.  “Which one of us do you think he’s watching?”

 

“I’m pretty sure it’s me.  Dr Brown got Patrick when Rita didn’t pass her physical.”

 

“Fuck.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

I was shivering, my breasts were so full they hurt.  When Max pulled on my shirt they started leaking a little.  “Christopher?” Oh shit, that made all of them look at me. “You are a medic or something, right?”  He nodded, giving me a look like I was trying to get him in trouble. “Is it safe for me to feed Max?”

 

Again, a hesitant nod.

 

“What ever meds you gave me won’t hurt him?”

 

Now they were all in a flutter.  Eventually the general came over, “I want to see you feed your son.”

 

“I want to know it’s safe.”

 

“Is safe,” Christopher said.  

 

They were all watching me intently.  I shuddered under the attention. “Could I just have a moment?  Of privacy?”

 

“No.”  The old guy said it with no room for debate.

 

It didn’t really matter, Max had lots of practice.  All I had to do was open the buttons and he took it from there.

 

“Can you feed others?”

 

That gave me pause.  God, I hoped he wasn’t going to ask for a try.  “I don’t know. It isn’t like drinking from a bottle.  I don’t know if another baby would be able to figure it out.”

 

“Could you feed Patrick?”

 

“I don’t know if he would know not to bite me.”

 

Suddenly, Christopher was handing me Rita’s son.  I hesitated, “I’m not his mom. Rita is.”

 

“Try.”  It was the same firmness of tone that he had used earlier.

 

I looked at Patrick.  “Do you want to try drinking some milk?”

 

He just shook his head and ran off.

 

They all frowned at me.  I shrugged, “Max doesn’t always want to eat either.”

 

The old guy leaned forward and pinched my arm hard enough to make me yelp.   Then he turned and spoke to Asshole at length, who kept frowning and looking over the other’s shoulder at me.  When they were finished, the other left. Asshole frowned at Harry then jerked his thumb indicating that the man should leave.  Once he had, Asshole took his place.

 

I ignored him for a while.  He returned the favour. After a while, Max lay in my lap and let me pet his hair.  It wasn’t long yet, still a short mop of baby curls. Eventually my son settled against me and his breathing slowed.  That’s when I looked up to see the Tattooed Wonder watching me.

 

“Did you arranged to get Harry and Martin brought here?”  I whispered.

 

He grunted, then nodded very slightly.

 

“Is that why you have a black eye?”

 

That one made him chuckle, but he nodded again.

 

“Thank you.”

 

He looked a little shocked at that.

 

“What’s your name?”

 

The sound he made certainly wasn’t English.  Harry was right, I wouldn’t be able to pronounce that.  “Oh,” I said weakly.

 

He chuckled again, “Theo.”

 

“Really?”

 

He shrugged.

 

“Pick that name your self, did you?”

 

Nod.

 

“Did you know it means god?  As in theology?”

 

He closed his eyes and laughed softly.  “Sam?”

 

“Name of god.”  He looked at me.  “No, really, it means ‘the name of god’.”

 

“Hard.”

 

“You want your name to be Hard or it’s hard picking a name?”

 

He shook his head a growled softly.  Then turned and pointed at me.

 

“I’m Kari.  I thought you knew that, but I guess I didn’t really introduce myself.”

 

This time he jabbed a finger in my direction, then patted his chest.

 

“I wouldn’t pick something very flattering I’m afraid.” He stopped looking at me at that.  “Hey, I’ve only known you for a couple of days. It took me a week to name Max.”

 

We sat in silence for a few moments.

 

“Sometime when I can actually understand what you are saying, I want you to tell me the story of the tattoos.”

 

He peeked at me out of the corner of his eye at that.

 

“There has got to be a story.  You are the only … one I’ve seen with … um… our style tattoos.”

 

He seemed to consider this, then nodded and went back to watching Max. 

 

After a while Martin came over and sat a respectful distance away from us. He’s asked me, “Are you able to walk?”

 

Asshole quickly replied with a firm, “No!”

 

Martin and I shared a look. “O...kay,” he continued, “If the godfathers carry our boys, then Harry and I can carry Max and Patrick and you can hitch a ride on the tank.  Sound good?”

 

“Where are we going?” I asked not wanting to think about being tossed into a fireman’s carry again. 

 

“Apparently dinner is always served buffet style in the park.”

 

I frowned and tried to figure out how that was going to work if everyone was carrying someone else. “The boys will be able to walk through the line, but that doesn’t work if I can’t.”

 

Martin shrugged, “we find you a place to sit and one of us brings you a plate.”

 

Asshole didn’t look overly pleased with that suggestion.  

 

“Max and I have eaten supper in the room so far.”

 

“Oh. Alright.  Tyler says we are all going with them.  I’ll see you later, yeah?”

 

“Yeah. Later dude.”

 

Martin shot me a worried look as he stood up and left.   As everyone else started to get themselves organized, Asshole got up and tried to round up Patrick and Max.  Eventually he had one giggling boy under each arm. Then he turned to me.

 

“You are out of arms,” I observed.  “Look, take the boys to eat and you can come back for me after.”

 

He frowned.  

 

“Christ, man!  I am trusting you with my son.  That is huge. Just… bring him back, ok?”

 

He looked at who else was in the yard.  I could watch him consider each of them in turn.  Finally he grumbled to himself and passed Patrick to Harry and Max to Martin.  Then he came back to where I was sitting and tossed me over his shoulder.

 

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Martin shouted even as Harry barked out a, “Hey!”

 

He turned and snarled at them.

 

I had a fabulous view of his ass but couldn’t actually see what was going on.  I could hear Martin trying to explain, “Watch it man! You have to be gentle! Fuck, look!  She is tiny. Fragile.”

 

“Delicate,” Harry added.

 

I was indignant. “I am -” the next word ‘not’ died in my throat.  If they could convince Asshole to be careful with me, that could only be to my advantage, right?  Unless they decided I was unfit. “I want to at least try walking.”

 

Everyone ignored that. 

 

Asshole slowly slid me off his shoulder.  He held me out at arms length, his hands holding my ribs just under my armpits and gave me the most critical look I had gotten since Mrs Beswick’s grade three class.

 

“Hi,” I said flatly for lack of anything else to say.

 

He narrowed his eyes and then slung me around so I was sitting on his hip the same way I would carry Max.

 

“Yeah, because dignity is highly overrated.”  

 

Asshole snorted what was almost an actual laugh.  Harry and Martin grinned at me.

 

\-----

 

We were eating picnic style in the park.  Random orcs kept walking past to stare at us.  It was really creepy for the adult humans and distracting for the kids.  The orcs sitting with us all just looked proud, like there was status in having stolen someone’s children.

 

If any of the kids made eye contact, the orc would wave or pull a face or something to try to make them laugh.  The boys loved it. But they weren’t eating their dinner.

 

I reached out and poked Max.  “Ok, cutie, less staring, more eating.”

 

Harry choked on his dinner, “Gorgeous!”  Then he started to laugh, full blown, tears running down his eyes, belly laugh.

 

“What?” Martin and I both asked.

 

“I just figured out what put the grumpy in Grumpy Bear,” he gasped.  

 

Asshole glowered at him, clenching his fists.  I put my hand on his arm and said to Harry, “Don’t go poking the bear.  I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

 

Harry had stopped laughing.  Martin was looking nervous. I looked back at Asshole who was staring at my hand on his arm.

 

I snatched it away and hunched away from him.  “Shit. Sorry.”

 

Harry shook his head, “I don’t think he is.”

 

Someone came over and handed Asshole a big mug of something hot.  He took a sip and passed it to me.

 

“Ugh.”

 

“What is it?” Martin asked.

 

“I don’t know, but it tastes like fake chocolate flavoured chalk in liquid form.” I grumbled.

 

Martin frowned, “Can I try?” He reached for it.  

 

One of the orc who was either Tyler or Carl batted his hand away, “no.”

 

That gave me pause.  “Are you poisoning me?”

 

Suddening everyone was shaking their head and explaining in words that I could not understand.  Somewhere out of the mess of voices, I picked out ‘milk drink.’

 

“It doesn’t taste like milk.  Why can’t Martin try it?”

 

“Yours,”  Asshole insisted.

 

I tried to read his face, but all I could see was orc.  I pretended to take a sip and set it aside, planning to ‘accidently’ spill it later.

 

Asshole helpfully picked it up and held it for me.

 

I ignored him and concentrated on feeding Max from his plate and eating my own dinner.

 

“Pro-tip buddy,” Harry interjected, “Kari is stubborn.  She isn’t going to drink that now that she isn’t sure what it is.”

 

“Muhlk drink,” he repeated.

 

“Let me try it.  If it isn’t drugged, what does it matter?”

 

The mug was reluctantly handed over.

 

Harry took a drink, made a face.  “Ugh. Why is it hot?” I looked at him.  “It’s a chocolate protein shake. It tastes like chalk because of the whey powder.”

 

“Oh!” Martin chimed in, “It’s a milk drink because it has a bunch of calcium!  It’s probably to help because you’re nursing.”

 

Asshole nodded slowly.

 

“Huh.”  I took the mug back when Harry passed it to me.  I took a swig, “Not sure it would be better cold.”

 

“Yeah,” he said, “I used to add it to smoothies.  The chocolate was better with a banana and some almond milk.”

 

I sighed, “I miss bananas.”

 

“Yeah.  Any fruit really,”  Martin agreed.

 

“Beer,” Harry added.

 

We all sighed.  It was pretty much the end of that night's conversation.

 

\----

 

Patrick and Max were tucked into the bed.  I wasn’t exactly happy about that. Grumpy Bear was frowning as he rewrapped my feet.  I couldn’t see the bottoms, but the tops didn’t look that bad.

 

“They don’t hurt,” I assured him.  He tapped the drug patch on the top of my foot. “Oh.”

 

“Hey!” Martin called from behind us.

 

Asshole spun around clearly ready to attack.

 

“Whoa!  Easy there big guy!  I was just going to ask if you wanted to come look in the closet in our room.  See if there is anything you think would fit Kari. If you want.”

 

He turned and looked at me.  “Schleep in bed!” it was definitely a command.

 

“Uh-” I started, but stopped when he snarled.

 

“Buddy?  You have to pick one.  Having her be in the bed and too scared to sleep or her not with you but actually getting some rest.  Threatening her only gets you one.”

 

“Martin?  Just be careful.  Harry and I need you with all your bits still attached.”

 

“Are you going to stay in the bed if he comes to look for clothes, or do I need to get Harry to keep an eye on you?”

 

I blinked.  OK, He was up to something.  I could go along with that. “Look, I don’t want to be-”

 

“Harry!  Just come keep an eye on Kari, she can’t be walking around on her sore feet.”

 

“Come on!  I am a grown adult, I don’t need a babysitter.”

 

“No,” Harry replied as he walked in, “but the kids do.  Oooh! Gutsy! Letting the not fully toilet trained kids sleep in the bed with cloth diapers that leak.  I’ll get some towels or something to put down at least.”

 

He headed to the bathroom, like it was nothing for him to be in the room.  I was pretty sure that if the guard wouldn’t even pass me diapers through the door way that it was a big deal.

 

I could see Asshole looking between the two men.  Harry came back with the shower curtain from around the tub.  “I got this.”

 

Asshole looked at me.  

 

“Oh, don’t worry.  I’ll keep an eye on her,” Harry assured him.

 

Grumbling to himself, Grumpy Bear left the building.  Or at least the room.

 

Harry watched him leave then leaned in and whispered in his most conspiratorial voice, “He calls you gorgeous.”

 

“What?”

 

“Look!  That’s why grumpy is so grumpy.  Bigger teeth should mean more status, but the ones with smaller teeth are easier to understand.  That means he can’t sweet talk you. So I bet he went from cock of the walk, to the guy who makes you flinch.  Guy has game, but none of it works on you. You aren’t impressed that he’s built like a bear, that just makes him scary.  He got you the biggest bed, but you won’t sleep in it. He’s getting you better food, but you think he’s poisoning you. Fuck sweetie!  I think he is really trying.”

 

“Really?”

 

“I mean, I think so.  Kids are status, you saw they way they were looking at the boys.  Now you have another one in your bed. That you don’t want to stay in.  From what I understand, you talked up how important it was to have us here.  He made it happen. I mean, thank you! But honestly, who does that?”

 

“You are saying he got me people as a gift?”

 

“I think so?  Come on, girl, you have to admit there are a bunch of size queens out there that would cum in their pants over that bear and he is trying to be nice to you.”

 

I rubbed the bruises on my arms, “He isn’t careful though.  I’ve been more banged in the last three days than I have in the last three years.”

 

“So maybe we just need to work on that.”

 

“I werk on thah-t.”

 

We both looked up guiltily.  Asshole was standing there with his arms full of clothes.  I wondered how much he had heard, but Martin was standing next to him grinning, so it couldn’t have been that much.

 

I couldn’t deal with all of this just now.  “If those clothes are for me, and you wear your uniform, then can Harry and Martin have the clothes out of this closet?”

 

He had to think about that.  Or maybe he had to translate it to whatever language he used in his head.  After a moment he nodded.

 

“The clothes that I wear disappear every night.  What happens when there aren’t any more?” I was shaking slightly under his gaze.

 

Grumpy Bear shrugged.

 

“Oh.”

 

Harry cleared his throat, “Are the clothes going to come back?  Will you get her more? Will you make her run around naked? We need to know these things!”

 

Shrug.

 

Martin looked pissed.  “When do they go missing?”

 

“When I’m in the shower.”

 

They both turned to look at the orc, “Which means,” Martin continued, “that either he is taking them or someone else is coming into the room while you are in the shower.”

 

The guys exchanged a look.  “You can shower in our room,”  Harry suggested. “You don’t have anything we haven’t seen before and we won’t let anything happen to your stuff.”

 

Asshole stiffened at that and growled something that I certainly didn’t understand.  

 

Martin did, “Excuse me!  I am married to that gorgeous man!  Kari doesn’t have anything that interests me!  She is safer with us than she is with you!”

 

“Don’t!” I wasn’t even sure which of them I was talking to, but they both turned and looked at me.

 

Harry was quiet when he spoke, “Come on Kari, we can’t fight off the soldiers, but we’ve never raped anyone either.”

 

“No.”  Tattoos was clearly pissed about that.

 

“You should go take care of the boys,” I suggested.

 

After Mr and Mr King left, Asshole spun and glared at me.  

 

I pulled the shower curtain closer as though it would somehow shield me against his rage. “He’s right.  If the boys and I sleep in the bathroom, it’s easier to clean up in the morning.”

 

He spoke.  I looked at him blankly.  He made a sound of frustration.  I jumped.

 

He stepped further away from the bed and paced for a moment.  The he stopped and spoke very slowly, “No mor cl-oh-th, th-eh-en,” he stopped and patted his chest, “or-kah cl-oh-th.”

 

“You are going to give me orc clothes?”

 

“Yeth.”

 

“Is this real clothes or like slave Leia clothes?”

 

“Wuh?”

 

I just shook my head.  “Clothes that actually cover me?  Or like that dress yesterday? Or even less covered?”

 

He turned and left.

 

“Great!  Thanks! Very helpful!”

 

“St- ay!”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PS - if you are interested, finding my stuff on Amazon isn't hard and leaving good reviews is SO helpful.
> 
> Even if you aren't shopping for stories, comments here are so welcome. People say feed the muse, but it really is a thing. Positive reinforcement works extremely well on writers.


	9. Chapter 9

While he was gone, I took the opportunity to stand up.  It didn’t go so well. I couldn’t feel the floor. After a brief impression of a dog wearing boots for the first time, I managed to crawl to the bathroom, have a pee and crawl back into the bed.  Then I concentrated on moving the boys onto the shower curtain. A big bed is nice, but a crib would be easier to manage. If we were going to be living indoors, the boys really needed some little potties so we could keep working on toilet training.

 

I remembered a line from some movie about the soldier who came home from war and his bed was too soft.  I could see that. Max and I slept on the ground under a blanket. If he peed in his sleep it just soaked into the ground.  I never had to worry about cleaning up. Not that it mattered. In the camp they would give me clean cloth diapers, but showers weren’t a thing.  Washing out of a bucket, basically meant that we all stank at least a little. No one was offended.

 

I didn’t want to have to worry that Asshole would decide we were defective or something if one of the boys wet the bed.

 

Suddenly, Grumpy Bear was pulling the shower curtain from my hand.  He spread it out on the floor, then put a stack of towels on the curtain.  He pulled out something that looked like a disposable diaper but made out of pvc or some sort of plastic.  He put one on each of the sleeping boys over their cloth diapers, then put them on the towel nest before covering them with a blanket.

 

At which point he turned and frowned at me.  OK. Time to see if Harry was right.

 

“Thank you.”

 

That threw him for a loop.  His eyes went wide for a moment, then he pointed at the bed, “Sleep.”

 

Jesus, was he getting better at talking or was I getting better at listening?  “I can sleep on the floor. It’s your bed.”

 

He shook his head, no.

 

“Look.  I’ve spent the last two years sleeping on the dirt.  The floor is an improvement.” Plus if you are sleeping in the bed I at least know where you are.

 

I would swear he just looked sad.

 

“Pree-z?”

 

“What?”

 

“Pree-z sleep in bah-ed-dah.”

 

I stared at him.  

 

He threw his hands up in disgust and sat on the floor next to the boys.  Then we stared at each other. 

 

“This would be easier for both of us if I knew what your plan was.”

 

He shrugged.

 

“No plan?”

 

He shook his head.

 

I licked my lips.  “Really? Because I’m am living in fear of ending up like Janice.”

 

He didn’t show any sign of understanding.

 

“About four inches taller than me, curly hair?  Doesn’t make eye contact or talk anymore because someone is hurting her badly enough that she is hiding in her own head and is too afraid to come out?”

 

That he recognized.  “Not m-eye.”

 

“Not yours?”

 

“No.”

 

“But I am?”

 

Nod.

 

“What about Martin and Harry?”

 

“Yours.”

 

“They are mine?”

 

Nod.

 

“OK.  Are you better at taking care of yours than who ever has Janice?”

 

Smirk, nod.

 

I just shook my head.  “I wish I could believe you, Grumpy Bear.”  He didn’t reply just adjusted his eyeline so he wasn’t watching me quite as intently.  “Since Max was born, there were only two nights where I didn’t sleep with him in my arms. I know I can’t keep him safe, but at least I know whatever happens we face it together.”

 

He nodded absentmindedly as he watched Max squirm in his sleep.  My little one wiggled around. He didn’t find me but he did find Patrick who he cuddled instead.

 

I was so exhausted my head hurt, whatever numbing stuff was on my feet was wearing off, and my eyes kept trying to close.  I was fighting hard to stay awake. There was a monster between me and my son. Having lost him for those two days had made an impact.  I didn’t want to wake up and find him gone.

 

It turned out the person I needed to worry about was Patrick.  He sat bolt upright and said, “I want my mommy!”

 

“Oh, darling!  I want your mom too!  But I don’t know where she is, so can we stick together until she gets back?”

 

Patrick sniffed and wiped his face on his arm.

 

“You and me and Max.  Just until she gets back.”

 

Patrick was watching Tattoos.  “I don’ like him.”

 

I swallowed.  To be honest, neither did I.  “He’s not so bad. Just a big Grumpy Bear.”

 

“Bear? Wa bear?”

 

“Yeah.  A bear. Like …. Those teddy bears James and William and Henry have.”

 

Patrick gave Tattoos a disbelieving look.  “You bear?”

 

Asshole nodded.  “Bear.”

 

“Yeah.”  I thought fast.  “See… the other boys just got a little stuffy to play with.  We got a great big bear to take care of us.”

 

Patrick frowned.

 

I shifted uncomfortably on the edge of the bed.

 

Grumpy came over and with exaggerated care picked me up.  He lay me down next to Patrick.  

 

“Need a hug?” I asked.  Patrick flung himself at me and sobbed into my chest.  “It’s OK. I got you.”

 

“Why Grumpy?”

 

I froze.  Shit. “Um...”

 

“Can no tah-ah-ka.”

 

Patrick nodded solemnly.  “Me neezer.”

 

“I bet that makes you mad when you can’t tell people what you want.”

 

They both nodded.

 

“It’s OK.  Max doesn’t talk very well either.  But I figured out how to understand him.  We’ll figure it out.”

 

Asshole was watching the boy.  “Wah-eh-ta?”

 

Both Patrick and I tried to figure that one out.  He got it first. “Needa pee, Bear!”

 

Asshole scooped him up and carried him to the bathroom.  A while later, there was the sound of running water and Patrick came back out and snuggled in next to Max.

 

I curled around one side of the boys and… Bear lay down on the other.  

 

“Na-ow sleep!”

 

\-----

 

I was the last one up in the morning.  Patrick and Max where playing in the corner.  Someone had turned up with a plate of fresh local fruit.  My feet hurt. I whimpered a bit as I sat up. 

 

Max ran over and hugged me, “Mommy!  Bear got foods!”

 

It took me a moment to remember who Bear was.

 

“Awesome!  But I need to go pee.”  

 

“I halp?” Bear asked.

 

I thought about that.  Crawl to the bathroom or let him carry me.  “Could you help by getting Christopher?”

 

“Hurt?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

That did it.  He picked up me up and carefully pulled me over his shoulder.

 

“Whoa!  Ok! Um!  Just set me down on the edge of the tub and I can take it from there.”

 

He went stock still for a moment, seeming to think about that.  Then he did as I asked stepping back to watch me.

 

“I would like to be alone for this part.”

 

He watched me for another moment, then turned the bathtub on and left..

 

I got the hint.  Once I was soaking in the tub, I took the opportunity to look at my feet.  They didn’t look too bad. There was the blister Christopher had cut open. They were tender, but the hot spots were gone.  Unwrapping them had been interesting. Bear had somehow taken a rectangle of cloth and made me an origami pair of socks. Maybe that’s why they were all so good at folding diapers.

 

That did however leave me with a problem.  The tub was deep and slippery. I gritted my teeth and was able to haul myself out with an ungraceful thump.  It seemed that was Martin’s queue to come in. He helped me get toweled off with only a few comments about how I was even skinnier that he was.  He brought me one of the toothbrushes we had found new in the drawers. As I brushed my teeth with a cup of water, he brushed my hair.

 

“OK.  Time to get the Bear.  I’m not going to be able to get you back to bed.”

 

“I guess that’s his name now.”

 

“Yeah.  No more calling him the other thing.  He has done a lot to help us. All of us.”

 

“Fine.”

 

“I’m serious, Kari.  Once we got the co-parents to actually talk to us - ”

 

Whatever he was going to say next was stopped by Bear coming in to carry me back to bed.  When I was dressed in sweats from the guys closet, Christopher came in to check my feet. After some back and forth he gave Bear a tube of stuff to rub onto the soles and me strict instructions to stay off my feet for the next two or three days.

 

I wasn’t happy, but  Bear was.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Show the love and feed the muse!
> 
> Also if you can't visualize square cloth socks, google Russian Foot Wraps.


	10. Chapter 10

In the last two days, I hadn’t been out of the room.  I had barely been out of bed. I was bored out of my mind and whatever residual fear I was harbouring towards Bear had largely been replaced by irritation.

 

I was starting to feel like veal.  I was kept in bed and food kept turning up every few hours.  If Martin hadn’t found me some comedy books in the library, I wouldn’t have made it this long.

 

Things I had learned:  The guards had a perfect view of the bed on their patrols.  There weren’t any electric lights in the upstairs rooms, so part of why the doors were gone might have been for better light.  Bear was still an asshole in that he was clearly working up to sleeping in the bed with me. I was trying to politely suggest that the bed was his and I would be happier sleeping on the floor.  He was rather set in the idea that me sleeping on the floor was somewhat offensive to him.

 

I was currently on the bed with five sleeping little boys all crammed in around me.  “This is ridiculous.”

 

That got the adults attention.  I once again wished it was just Harry and Martin and not a collection of four large male orcs in the room with me.

 

“What is Kari?”  Harry asked.

 

I looked down at Max.  “Well, just that you have more kids in your room but the bigger bed is in here.”

 

Tyler snorted, “Make more kids for you.”

 

I felt sick and looked away.

 

That night when Bear was watching me eat supper I hesitantly suggested, “If we cleaned out the walk in closet, it’s big enough to be a nursery.  The boys and I could sleep in there. It’s not like the clothes fit either of us anyway.”

 

Bear considered this for a moment.  “Boys sleep there. Kari sleep here.”  

 

I ignored that suggestion and was going to just let it drop.

 

Bear made a soft growl of frustration.

 

“I don’t like that the guards can stand in the hallway and watch me sleep.  It feels too vulnerable. I’ve known you less than a week. You are scary and I am acutely aware that you can do whatever the hell you like to me.  I know it’s a false sense of security, but I sleep better knowing you aren’t too close.”

 

He didn’t say anything to that.

 

\-----

 

Christopher had turned up after breakfast, plucked me out of the bed and carried me off without any explanation.

 

Bear had just let him.

 

I tried to find out what was going on, but when he didn’t answer me, I just wept.  It was some sort of medical. I was stripped then measured, height, weight, the circumference of various body parts.  Christopher ran his hands down my back seeming to count my ribs and backbones. He pulled out a fist full of swabs and swabbed my throat, my cheeks, each of my eyes.  There were different swabs that went so far up my nose I coughed.

 

I was very afraid I was about to get a repeat of the pelvic exam, but at least that didn’t happen.  

 

I was given a pair of hospital pajamas.

 

Then Christopher unwrapped the bandages on my feet.  He had a good look at the soles, between my toes and at the healing blisters at where the boots had rubbed on the sides of my feet.

 

After that, he sat me on a bar stool, liberally smeared my feet in goop and handed me a book on fly fishing, before ignoring me to sew some orcs ear that had been partially bitten off.

 

As guy with the ear was treated, someone gave me another mug of protein shake.

 

When both were finished I asked, “Can I go back to Max now?  Please?”

 

Christopher looked at me like he had forgotten I was there.

 

“You go when Bear come get you.”

 

That was ominous.  “What if he doesn’t?”

 

Christopher just shrugged.

 

I spent the rest of the morning learning about how to tie flies.  At least it wasn’t a book on tax code.

 

“When last bleed?”

 

That got my attention.  “What?”

 

“When last bleed from legs?”

 

I frowned, “My feet haven’t been bleeding in days.”

 

Christopher frowned, pulled a medical book off one of his shelves, flipped through it and handed it to me open.

 

To a page about menstruation.

 

“Oh.  Wow. That’s an awkward question.”  

 

“When?”

 

“I don’t know.  It’s not like we have calendars in the camps.”

 

“Guess.”

 

He had all of Cynthia’s paper work on me.  Preg = 0 Birth = 0. “A couple of months after Max was born.”

 

“When milk comes?”

 

“Yeah.  I guess.  All of the women lost enough weight that no one is menstruating in the camp any more.”

 

He didn’t like that last bit, but he made a note about it anyway.

 

I went back to reading about best to tie flies that will catch fish anywhere in North America and wondering how many people got fish hooks in their fingers trying to make them.

 

“How often before?”

 

I looked back up to see him watching me.  OK. Time to piss him off. They always got angry when we talked about before.  “Before you came I was regular every 29 days.” Yeah, that made him curl up his lips in disgust.  “Anything else?”

 

He narrowed his eyes at me.  “How many men?”

 

“Is that a real question or are you just curious?  Because the real question should be do I have any diseases and Cynthia already ran a boat load of tests for that.”

 

He didn’t ask again.

 

At lunch, we were each brought a bowl of thick stew.  I got another cup of chalky goodness and Bear staring pointedly at me, waiting for me to finish.

 

When he came over to pick me up, I held up my hands.  “Christopher let me walk to the bathroom by myself, so I must be cleared to walk, right?”

 

There was a rather heated discussion about that in a language I couldn’t understand.  Then Bear rewrapped my feet and held out his hand. I wasn’t totally back to normal, but it was much improved.  I was still going to need some shoes that actually fit.  

 

Out of the room that had been set up as a doctors’ office, down the hall past the kitchen and up the grand staircase to the second floor.  At first glance it looked like the bed was just gone. But once I was inside I realized the king sized bed was gone and a queen sized one had been set up so that it wasn’t as visible from the doorway.  The large space where the bed had been was now set up a play space with some blocks and a wooden train set.

 

Max and the boys were sitting there rolling cars around the track.  Someone had found one of those wooden train whistles.

 

“Aw!  That’s nice.”

 

Bear pulled me to the former walk in closet, that had been stripped of shelves and now housed two toddler beds.  It was a perfect little bedroom for the boys. 

 

With no room for me unless I squeezed in with one of them.

 

My heart rate went up and I sat down on one of the beds.  Bear sat on the floor and watched me.

 

“Listened,” he said softly.

 

“To most of it, yeah.”

 

“Not scary.”

 

“Yeah you are.”

 

Out of the corner of my eye I could see him shaking his head.  “Not touch.”  

 

I looked over and he held his hands up by his shoulder and pulled them away from me.

 

“Did Christopher really need to do all of that, or did you just scare the crap out of me to get me out of the room for this?”

 

He frowned, “Slowly, please.”

 

“Did Christopher need to do that?”

 

“What he do?”  he didn’t sound pleased.

 

“Took away my clothes.  Measured me, swabbed me.  Asked about my sex life.”

 

Bear’s eyebrows went up at the last one.  He cleared his throat, “Tell me?”

 

“I didn’t tell him, you don’t need to know either.  I don’t want to know about yours. I don’t want to need to know about yours.  I don’t want-”

 

“Me,” he finished.

 

“Anyone!” I snapped.

 

Fuck.  That was the wrong thing to say.  He actually perked up a bit at that.

 

He nodded, “Too small.  Wait you bigger.”

 

I snorted, “I’m fully grown, Bear.  I’m not getting any bigger.”

 

He shrugged.

 

I swallowed, “Is that why Christopher was measuring me? To know when I’m bigger?”

 

Nod.

 

“Do you have any idea how horrible that is?”

 

“Not bad.  Take care. Werk on that.”

 

“It‘s a bit of an incentive to not eat though, isn’t it?  If I know I’m getting raped when I fatten up a bit.”

 

“No.  Kari eat. I not take.  Wait til give.”

 

“You’re gonna be waiting a long time, Bear.”

 

He just shrugged, “I wait.”  Then got up off the floor and left.

 

I sat in the nursery for a long while until Martin came to find me.

 

He sat next to me and said softly, “Bear said you asked for this.”

 

“I did… sort of.”

 

“We got the big bed.  You talked about that, so I thought this was your idea.”

 

“Yeah.  My version didn’t involve me bed sharing with him.”

 

Martin reached over and rubbed my back. “Kari?  He hasn’t hurt you yet. He’s had lots on time. Maybe it’s going to be OK.”

 

“I hope so.”

 

Martin nodded, “Do you have any idea how scared we were when the soldiers came into  the camp and took us to be ‘mothers’? I fought. We both fought! But all they did was give us our sons back.”  Martin took a deep breath and blew it out. “OK, so co-parenting with a bunch of orcs wasn’t how I planned on raising my kids, but they genuinely want what’s best for the boys.  I can’t imagine having Bear hurt you ever being seen as what’s best for Max.”

 

“Maybe,” I conceded.

 

We all had supper in the park that night.  I will admit that when it was time to head back to the room, I needed his help.  When it was time for bed, I got the bed. Bear took the floor. I slept with one eye open, but I had three years of practice to get good at that.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr ate my last blog, but I'm trying again.](https://pixieungerstories.tumblr.com)


End file.
